Smokies home movies unearthed

New film to be shown after park's rededication

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Amateur moviemakers who captured a family vacation or memorable event have provided a fresh look at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as it celebrates its 75th anniversary.

Home movies provide all the footage in a new film, "Vintage Views of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park: 1920-1970." The park is being rededicated next week, and the movie will debut shortly afterward.

The film is an 80-minute montage of mostly 16 mm clips gathered from the home movies of residents of the Smokies and the Gatlinburg area.

It's all there: the scenic views, the family hikes, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's park dedication, the mountain accents and the tantalizing taffy shops that developed in Gatlinburg as the Smokies became the nation's most visited national park.

"Hollywood couldn't be there every day, but the history was captured by mom and pop taking their kids to the mountains, or people just interested in the mountains," said Bradley Reeves, a co-producer of the movie.

"It's a unique piece as told through the lens of the amateur filmmaker," Reeves said. "We've been lucky to have access to this."

The film has light narration and both black-and-white and color images with old-time string music in the background. It documents the changes in the Smokies over the 50-year span.

"It's a window into a different time," said Reeves, co-director of the Knoxville-based Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound, which produced the project. The film will debut in Gatlinburg on Sept. 12, and a DVD eventually is expected to be available.

"This really takes you back into an era long gone, a way of life and a culture," Reeves said.